Sweet potato pie is the crowning touch to Thanksgiving

Thursday

Nov 25, 2010 at 12:01 AMNov 25, 2010 at 12:38 AM

Pumpkin pie? On Thanksgiving? Debbie Whitelow had never heard of such a thing until she was well past the legal age for driving, voting and anything else. "Growing up, my mom always made sweet potato pies," she says. "I don't really know when I was introduced to pumpkin pies."

Pam Adams

Pumpkin pie?

On Thanksgiving?

Debbie Whitelow had never heard of such a thing until she was well past the legal age for driving, voting and anything else. "Growing up, my mom always made sweet potato pies," she says. "I don't really know when I was introduced to pumpkin pies."

Pumpkin pie?

On Thanksgiving?

"I wouldn't allow one in my house," says Dan Ferguson, whose wife, Lillie, is known for her sweet potato pies.

The great pumpkin versus sweet potato pie debate was never much of a debate. Not like the arguments over the best way to roast a turkey. Or the dressing versus stuffing wars. Noooo. Until recent years, the debate was more of a divide. Mainly between people who wouldn't dream of placing pumpkin pie on the Thanksgiving table and people who had never heard of sweet potato pie. The latter group tended to equate sweet potatoes and Thanksgiving with the marshmallow-covered dish.

This thing about pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving tradition was cooked up between Pilgrims and Indians a long time before President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday of November a national day of thanks. Farther south, enslaved Africans, yearning for memories of home, adopted the sweet potato to replace the beloved yam, which was so popular on the African continent that in some West African languages variations of the word mean, literally, "to eat."

Foods, thanks to the people, migrate and mingle and that's what the original Thanksgiving story is all about. So it is with the sweet potato pie. Once thought of primarily as a Southern dish, it is showing up at restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores alongside the ubiquitous pumpkin pie.

But the increasing mainstream acceptance of the sweet potato pie is not without minor cooking clashes.

Ali actually preferred pumpkin to sweet potato pie when she was young. "But I've abandoned it, the sweet potato pie has won out in my family."

Lillie Ferguson could make a pumpkin pie, but she won't. "To me, pumpkin pies taste slick."

To aficionados, the basic ingredient, sweet potatoes, doesn't need as much as pumpkin to dress up its taste.

Ferguson has been making sweet potato pies for so long she can judge how much of each ingredient she needs without measuring. Six sweet potatoes should make two pies, she says. She uses two eggs for each pie.

While there are sweet potato pie recipes galore, there are differences about the best recipes among the ranks of sweet potato pie lovers. For instance, Ferguson says some people use regular milk, but she only uses Eagle Brand. She also skips the myriad spices and flavoring some recipes list.

"I only use cinnamon and nutmeg and I don't use vanilla flavor because I want to taste the pie, not the flavor," she says. Contrary to what many recipes call for, she bakes hers slow, at 250 degrees.

Mary Foster, whose family owns and operates Hick'ry Stick Catering and Cafe, represents a detente in an undeclared war.

She grew up in a strict sweet potato pie family and she admits, "Some people never had sweet potato pie, but I never wanted pumpkin."

However, that changed once she started baking a wider variety of pies for the restaurant. She likes her pumpkin and her sweet potato pies, though pumpkin pies typically need more sugar.

In the past several years, she's prepared sweet potato and pumpkin pies for the business as well as her family's Thanksgiving meal.

"I think I've brought unity between the two."

Pam Adams can be reached at 686-3245 or padams@pjstar.com.

SWEET POTATO PIE

11/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

4 medium (11/2 cups) cooked, mashed sweet potatoes

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup evaporated milk

3 eggs

Sweetened whipped cream, if desired

Pastry for 9-inch pie crust

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all filling ingredients except evaporated milk, eggs and whipped cream in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Reduce speed to low, add milk and eggs. Beat until well mixed.

With a fork, pierce sweet potatoes and place on foil-lined baking sheet. Roast until soft, about one hour, turning once.

Cool, peel and put flesh through a food mill or use a potato masher to make two cups of puree.

Reduce oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk puree and remaining ingredients. Pour into prepared crust.

Place pie plate onto a cookie sheet and bake until filling is just about set or when a knife inserted one inch from the edge comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool pie on wire rack to room temperature.

Place all ingredients except egg whites and shredded coconut into bowl of food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Remove from the processor and set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until they are frothy but not at the peak stage. Fold egg whites into sweet potato pie mixture. Fold in grated coconut and mix well.

Mound the mixture into pie shell and bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a rack to room temperature. Can be served warm or chilled with unsweetened whipped cream flavored with rum.

For those of you non-lovers of sweet potato pie, we also have a classic pumpkin pie recipe from chef Paula Deen.

PUMPKIN PIE

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

2 cups canned pumpkin, mashed

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten

1 cup half-and-half

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, optional

1 piece pre-made pie dough

Whipped cream, for topping

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place 1 piece of pre-made pie dough down into a (9-inch) pie pan and press down along the bottom and all sides. Pinch and crimp the edges together to make a pretty pattern. Put the pie shell back into the freezer for 1 hour to firm up. Fit a piece of aluminum foil to cover the inside of the shell completely. Fill the shell up to the edges with pie weights or dried beans (about 2 pounds) and place it in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the foil and pie weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until the crust is dried out and beginning to color.

For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt, and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half and melted butter, and beat until combined. Add the vanilla, cinnamon and ginger and beat until incorporated.

Pour the filling into the warm prepared pie crust and bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is set. Place the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into slices and top each piece with a generous amount of whipped cream.

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